Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.V.

Philips Image Guided Therapy Corporation

Jun Seob Shin

Francois Guy Gerard Marie Vignon

Jean-Luc Francois-Marie Robert

Sheng-Wen Huang

David Hope Simpson

Seungsoo Kim

Andrew Hancock

Man Nguyen

Faik Can Meral

Shyam Bharat

Ramon Quido Erkamp

Unmin Bae

Changhong Hu

Yiqun Yang

Frederik Jan De Bruijn

James Robertson Jago

Hua Xie

William Tao Shi

Grzegorz Andrzej Toporek

Harold Agnes Wilhelmus Schmeitz

Jean-Luc Robert

Shiying Wang

Darwin Philip Adams

Neil R Owen

Scott William Dianis

Sibo Li

Douglas Maxwell

Carolina Amador Carrascal

Muhammad Usman Ghani

Xiaowen Hu

Iason Zacharias Apostolakis

An ultrasound imaging system which acquires short and/or undersampled radiofrequency ensembles for generating color Doppler images. The ultrasound imaging system processes the short and/or undersampled ensembles to simulate color Doppler images acquired from long radiofrequency ensembles. In some examples, the ultrasound imaging system includes one or more neural networks to process the ensembles.

Systems and methods for generating color doppler images from short and undersampled ensembles

Systems and methods for suppressing random noise, acoustic clutter, and/or reverberation clutter in ultrasound images are disclosed. An autoregressive moving average (ARMA) filtering technique that includes generating a predictive error filter and estimating noise in ultrasound channel data is disclosed. Time-space and frequency-space ARMA filtering techniques are disclosed. An ultrasound imaging system capable of implementing the ARMA filtering techniques is disclosed.

Methods and systems for random noise supression and filtering of acoustic clutter via autoregressive moving average filter

Improved ultrasound imaging devices and methods of operating the devices that minimize grating lobe artifacts in an ultrasound image are provided. For example, an ultrasound imaging system analyzes the ultrasound data at different frequency bands and generates a grating-lobe-minimized image based on minimum signals identified for each pixel among the plurality of frequency ranges. In one embodiment, an ultrasound imaging system includes an ultrasound transducer array configured to obtain ultrasound data, and a processor in communication with the ultrasound transducer array. The processor is configured to receive the ultrasound data, generate an ultrasound image based on a first frequency range of the ultrasound data, generate a grating-lobe-minimized ultrasound image based on a plurality of second frequency ranges of the ultrasound data, combine the ultrasound image and the grating-lobe-minimized ultrasound image to generate a combined ultrasound image, and output the combined ultrasound image to a display.

Grating lobes reduction for ultrasound images and associated devices, systems, and methods

Systems and methods for reducing speckle while maintaining frame rate are disclosed. Multiple sub-images associated with different receive angles are acquired for a single transmit/receive event at an observation angle. The sub-images are compounded to generate a final image with reduced speckle. In some examples, multiple sub-images from multiple transmit/receive events are compounded to generate the final image. The observation angle and/or the receive angles may vary between transmit/receive events in some examples.

Methods and systems for speckle reduction in ultrasound images by compounding sub-images associated with different receive angles

An ultrasound transducer array includes an array of elongate support members that are displaceable and/or deformable relative to each other in the elongation direction of the elongate support members, each elongate support member having a patient facing surface carrying an ultrasound transducer tile; and multiple sensors, each adapted to detect the relative displacement and/or deformation of one of the elongate support members. The ultrasound transducer array may be included in an ultrasound system.

Surface compliant ultrasound transducer array

Systems, devices, and methods for ultrasonic imaging by sparse sampling are provided. In one embodiment, an ultrasound imaging system comprises an array of ultrasound transducer elements, electronic circuitry in communication with the array of ultrasound transducer elements and configured to select a first receive aperture of the array comprising a plurality of contiguous ultrasound transducer elements and at least one non-contiguous ultrasound transducer element, and a beamformer in communication with the electronic circuitry. Each ultrasound transducer element of the first receive aperture is configured to receive reflected ultrasound echoes and generate an electrical signal representative of imaging data. The beamformer is configured to receive the electrical signals generated by the first receive aperture and apply different weight to the electrical signals generated by the contiguous ultrasound transducer elements and the electrical signal generated by the at least one non-contiguous ultrasound transducer element.

Ultrasonic imaging by sparse sampling and associated devices, systems, and methods

The invention provides methods and systems for generating an ultrasound image. In a method, the generation of an ultrasound image comprises: obtaining channel data, the channel data defining a set of imaged points; for each imaged point: isolating the channel data; performing a spectral estimation on the isolated channel data; and selectively attenuating the spectral estimation channel data, thereby generating filtered channel data; and summing the filtered channel data, thereby forming a filtered ultrasound image. In some examples, the method comprises aperture extrapolation. The aperture extrapolation improves the lateral resolution of the ultrasound image. In other examples, the method comprises transmit extrapolation. The transmit extrapolation improves the contrast of the image. In addition, the transmit extrapolation improves the frame rate and reduces the motion artifacts in the ultrasound image. In further examples, the aperture and transmit extrapolations may be combined.

Methods and systems for processing an ultrasound image

Ultrasound imaging systems and methods for generated clutter-reduced images are provided. For example, an ultrasound imaging system can include an array of acoustic elements in communication with a processor. The processor is configured to activate the array to perform a scan sequence to obtain a plurality of signals, identify off-axis signals from the plurality of signals by comparing the right subaperture and the left subaperture, and create a clutter-reduced image based on the comparison. Because off-axis signals are more likely to create image clutter, reducing the influence of off-axis signals on the image can therefore improve the quality of the image. Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems, methods, and devices for generating ultrasound images that have reduced or minimized clutter, even for images obtained using arrays that do not satisfy the Nyquist criterion.

Clutter reduction for ultrasound images and associated devices, systems, and methods

An ultrasound imaging system produces images with enhanced resolution or contrast by extrapolation of two ultrasound images of different imaging characteristics, such as aperture size, imaging frequency, or degree of image compounding. In order to prevent the display of image artifacts, extrapolation is accompanied by artifact removal and image smoothing.

Ultrasound imaging system with pixel extrapolation image enhancement

Ultrasound image devices, systems, and methods are provided. An ultrasound imaging system, comprising an array of acoustic elements configured to transmit ultrasound energy into an anatomy and to receive ultrasound echoes associated with the anatomy; and a processor circuit in communication with the array of acoustic elements and configured to receive, from the array, ultrasound channel data corresponding to the received ultrasound echoes; normalize the ultrasound channel data by applying a first scaling function to the ultrasound channel data; generate beamformed data by applying a predictive network to the normalized ultrasound channel data; de-normalize the beamformed data by applying a second scaling function to the beamformed data; generate an image of the anatomy from the beamformed data; and output, to a display in communication with the processor circuit, the image of the anatomy.

Ultrasound imaging with deep learning-based beamforming and associated devices, systems, and methods

The invention provides a method for controlling the generation of a compound ultrasonic image. The method includes obtaining a first ultrasound image and applying adaptive beamforming to the first ultrasound image, thereby generating a second ultrasound image. A weighting is determined based on the first and second ultrasound images, wherein the weighting comprises at least one weighting component. The compound ultrasound image is then generated based on the first and second ultrasound images and the weighting component.

Methods and systems for controlling the generation of a compound ultrasound image

Various embodiments relate to a method for managing healthcare resources including receiving information selecting a first outcome perspective, calculating first impactibility scores for the first outcome perspective, determining a first subarea based on the first impactibility scores, and designating an allocation of healthcare resources and cost for the first subarea based on the first outcome perspective. The first impactibility scores are calculated for respective subareas including the first subarea, and the first outcome perspective corresponds to a first ratio of healthcare resources and cost.

Data augmentation for training deep learning models with ultrasound images

Improved ultrasound imaging devices and methods of using the devices are provided. An intraluminal imaging device is configured process imaging data obtained using a single imaging sequence in different processing paths to generate B-mode and flow images. For example, an ultrasound imaging system includes an ultrasound imaging device comprising an array of acoustic elements and a processor in communication with the array. The processor activates the array of acoustic elements to acquire ultrasound data using a sequence of transmit-receive pairs, generates a B-mode image using the acquired ultrasound data, forms a plurality of sub-apertures comprising a portion of the transmit-receive pairs, groups the sub-apertures into temporally-spaced ensembles, determines a flow estimate based on a comparison of at least one of sub-apertures within an ensemble, ensembles within an aperture, or different apertures, and outputs a graphical representation of the B-mode image and the flow estimate to a display.

Devices, systems, and methods for multimodal ultrasound imaging

In an ultrasound imaging system which produces synthetically transmit focused images, the multiline signals used to form image scanlines are analyzed for speed of sound variation, and a mapof this variation is generated. In a preferred implementation, the phase discrepancy of the received multilines caused by speed of sound variation in the medium is estimated in the angular spectrum domain for the receive angular spectrum. Once the phase is estimated for all locations in an image, the differential phase between two points at the same lateral location, but different depth, is computed. This differential phase is proportional to the local speed of sound between the two points. A color-coded two- or three-dimensional mapis produced from these speed of sound estimates and presented to the user.

Synthetic transmit focusing ultrasound system with speed of sound mapping

An ultrasound system according to the present disclosure may include a beamformer configured to perform per-channel weighting on the RF signals received at each channel in order to reduce noise clutter in the image. For this purpose, the beamformer may receive at one or more channels associated with an active aperture, sets of receive signals associated with respective transmit beams that at least partially overlap. The beamformer may alter the receive space, e.g., to align the sets of receive signals to a common location (e.g., between the transmit beams) and generate a coherence-based weighting value that may be indicative of blockage. The coherence-based weighting value may be applied on a per-channel basis to the receive signals. The beamformer may also communicate the coherence metric to the controller for altering the transmit space. In some such examples, the power output to one or more elements of the array may be adjusted based upon the per-channel weighting value or determined blockage of the aperture.

Growing community of inventors

Medford, MA, United States of America

Jun Seob Shin